A/N - Sorry its taken a while to update, meant to get something done before the weekend. Thanks to all that are still reading/reviewing/adding to alerts etc. And special thanks to bones35 for giving me a few pointers and showing me a few typos I'd made. I will have at least one more chapter after this, my guess is about a week.

Dislcaimer - As always I still don't own Castle

As the morning sun began its slow ascent from the horizon over New York City its rays of light breached through the windows of Castle's loft, dust particles seemingly trapped in its beams, swirling around majestically, never quite appearing to settle. The beams of light continued to radiate further into the loft, until finally deciding to settle on the face of one of New York's finest detectives.

Upon feeling the warmth of the sun on her face, Kate slowly woke from her sleep, her eyes cautiously opening whilst they adjusted to the light. Though Kate was awake, she didn't seem to want to get up or move, for some reason she just felt happy and cozy where she was this morning. Subconsciously her ever active mind began to formulate a list of reasons as to why this morning seemed to feel so much better than any other. Was it simply because she woke up naturally to sunlight and not an alarm this morning? Was it that she couldn't hear the usual noise of traffic and car horns this morning? Or was it just that fact that this sofa was more comfortable than her bed?

That last thought seemed to start the cogs turning, she wasn't in her bed. In fact she didn't appear to even be in her apartment! Though strangely she didn't seemed too phased by this revelation, after all she did feel safe and secure where she was. Lifting her head slightly she scanned the room, and within just a few seconds had picked out enough familiar objects to confirm what she'd initially thought, she was in Castle's loft.

Having now remembered where she was had been enough to jump start her into remembering how she'd ended up sleeping there. With that thought she turned her attention back to the sofa she was on, or more specifically the writer that was on the sofa with her. He was sprawled out below her, one arm wrapped protectively around her waist, the other hanging off the side of the sofa dropping toward the floor, his face looked peaceful with a huge smile plastered across it. Kate couldn't resist letting her hand brush across his face before running her fingers through his messy morning hair, a beaming smile lighting up her face as her mind wandered back to the events of the evening before.

8 hours earlier

Once Martha had left, Kate had continued to flick through the photo album intrigued at this new insight to Rick's past. Sure she may have known a little of his mysterious past from what she'd read in the papers and his website, but most of that had probably been either made up or altered by the media anyway. And though he'd often mentioned to her about the times when he'd been razing Alexis, he'd never really spoke much about himself growing up. Finding out all these new bits of history about 'young' Rick Castle made her feel quiet privileged and special, he was sharing with her the sort of things only his family knew about him.

Typically for each photo she asked about, Rick, being the creative writer he was, would not just tell the story behind it, but he'd also build the scene from the ground up, covering every tiny little detail as he relived the photo in question. The way he took the words and painted such a vivid picture with them reminded Kate of how he'd narrated to her some of the pages from Joe's diary in the Blue Butterfly case.

Despite Rick's initial enthusiasm though, there were some slightly more embarrassing photos to which he'd been a bit more reluctant to elaborate on. In the grand scheme of things though Rick had known he was only stalling for time as it didn't take Kate's renowned interrogation skills to break him and get her the story she was after.

As the night progressed Rick had turned the trip down memory lane into a small game by giving Kate two short stories to each photo, leaving it up to her to try and work out which one was true, and only giving her more details about it if she guessed correctly. Much to his dismay though she had an alarmingly high success rate in guessing the correct version of events.

"Well I have to hand it to you Castle, your early years were certainly eventful!"

"What can I say, I'm just and interesting person" Rick gave her a smug looking smile

"Sorry I didn't mean to inflate your ego anymore than it already was"

"Very funny detective"

"Maybe I should take one of your baby photos into the precinct to show everyone how cute you used to be" Kate teased, knowing he'd pick up on the later part of what she'd said.

"What do you mean used to be?" Rick pretended to sound offended, though couldn't quite pull it off as he let out a small laugh

"Well now you're just ruggedly handsome" Kate once more teased

"I'm glad you think so" The grin on Ricks face said it all.

Kate just rolled her eyes once more as she reached for her glass.

"So why have you never written a autobiography with all this in? I'm sure it'd be a bestseller in no time" The thought had just popped into her head from nowhere in particular.

"Actually my publisher did ask me a few years ago if I'd do one, and I said no to them back then" Rick was looking up blankly at the celling as if he was remembering back.

"So how come you said no?" Kate asked, now even more curious to know the answer.

"I didn't want to share my whole past with everyone, don't get me wrong I'm happy to have some publicity in the media, but some things are personal, just for me and my family to share"

"You shared all that with me though" Kate said hesitantly as she looked at Rick.

"Well you know I don't consider you just anyone" Rick returned her gaze, starring into her eyes.

She knew the meaning behind his words, her heart beating more rapidly as she thought about them. She'd given up trying to deny her feelings for him, and she already knew how he felt about her. An air of silence filled the gap between them as her mind fought that never ending internal battle of weather or not to move things forward with them.

But just as she opened her mouth about to reply, Rick interrupted cutting in.

"Besides, if I were to write an autobiography then I'd rather explain how I go about saving the world from murderers, bank robberies and bombs every day with my extraordinary sexy superhuman sidekick!" Rick joked, feeling he had to try and lighten the mood after the awkward silence a moment ago, though unaware of what Kate had been about to tell him.

Kate was a little frustrated that she'd come so close to saying something and still hadn't, but also quite thankful she'd now have more time to work out exactly what to say to him. For now she'd just continue with the conversation at hand.

"Saving the world Castle? Isn't that a bit of an exager...hang on a minute did you just call me the sidekick?" She gave 'a look' in Rick's direction, causing him to move a cushion between him and Kate as if it might offer him some sort of protection.

"Well I do often end up saving you"

"Sometimes maybe, though I thought we'd agreed to call it 50/50" Kate referred back to the argument they'd already had after the bank robbery incident.

"Ok that's true, we did settle on that. But I do come up with more theories for catching the bad guys then you"

"You may come up with more theories, but I'm the one that actually catches the bad guys using actual evidence while you're off looking for ghosts or running away from tigers!"

"Hey that tiger was after you as well!" It wasn't much of a defense but it was all he had.

"Fine that one I'll give you" Kate managed to get out whilst yawning.

"Didn't realize it was past your bedtime" He couldn't help but laugh a little.

"Its just been a long day, but worth it" Kate smiled back.

"Well you can't drive, you've had to much to drink"

"Being a cop I think I know what the law is" She may have been tired, but she could still manage sarcasm.

"I can call you a cab, I'm sure I've got a number in my phone somewhere" Rick took out his phone and began scrolling through his contacts, but was caught off guard by Kate's next words.

"Besides, I don't want to go" Kate bit down on her lip as she looked at Rick.

Rick's phone actually dropped out of his hand onto the floor as he froze, looking up at Kate.

Kate moved closer and leant her head on Rick's shoulder

"I'm tired of running, from this...from us" She closed her eyes as she snuggled further into him

"Are you sure this isn't the wine talking?" Although inside Rick was over the moon, he was also vey concerned that she wasn't aware of what she was saying.

She opened her eyes again, and turned to look him in the eyes

"I know what I'm saying Rick, I know I've had a few drinks, but its not the wine talking"

She could see in Rick's eyes the worry he had that she was out of it, and could understand why he'd be thinking that. Coming to the conclusion that she was too tired to convince him that what she was telling him was from her heart and not the bottle of wine, she decided it might be best to leave the feelings and relationship conversation till the morning when they both had fresh minds.

"Rick to put your mind at ease, and make sure alcohol isn't a factor, we'll talk about this in the morning. And I promise you I'll remember all this" She rested her head back on his chest, closing her eyes once more slowly drifting off.

Rick didn't know what to make of the last few minutes, he just prayed she'd remember what she'd said in the morning, at that she really was ready to give them a chance.

He simply wrapped his arms around her holding her closer, as he did he heard her softly murmur "Can we just stay like this for a while"

"Always" He replied softly, gently laying back on the sofa still holding Kate as he too drifted off to sleep.